Concealed handguns: Simplify permit process, senator says

AUSTIN — State Sen. Robert Deuell says he wants to simplify the process for Texans applying for, or, renewing their concealed handgun licenses. Deuell, R-Greenville, has filed a bill that would reduce the required number of hours of classroom instruction — from 10 to four.

“We talked to the people who teach the course and they said ‘we don’t need 10 hours,’ ” Deuell, a concealed handgun license holder himself, said as he explained his Senate Bill 858. “We didn’t change the requirements to pass the written test (and) we didn’t change the requirements of the shooting proficiency.

“There is not that much to teach, it is just a waste of time,” Duell emphasized. “The people who go to those courses are already well-trained, they have studied the law and we just thought we should be more respectful of their time.”

Deuell, who has represented his East Texas district for 10 years, has plenty of company.

As of mid-Friday, five hours before the bill-filing deadline for the current session, an unusually high number of gun-related proposals had already been filed – mostly what supporters call Second Amendment-friendly measures.

One bill, for example, would give gun and ammunition buyers a tax-free weekend – like back-to-school shopping weekend in mid-August. Another proposal would reduce the fee for getting or renewing a concealed carry license.

However, unlike previous sessions, in terms of attention, such bills are taking a backseat to measures like armed marshals at public schools, or, allowing gun training for teachers and other school personnel. Those measures were triggered by the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, which left 26 people dead, mostly children.

Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, filed a proposal that would allow school districts to have armed marshals while Rep. James White, R-Hillister, filed a bill that would allow gun training for school personnel.

Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, also filed a bill that would authorize law enforcement officers in the state to arrest federal agents attempting to enforce a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines if Congress approves it and President Barack Obama signs it into law.

Also, Rep. George Lavender, R-Texarkana, filed a measure that would allow people with concealed handgun licenses carry their firearms in public view – like law enforcement officers do. And then, there is another proposal to allow license holders to carry their weapons on public colleges and universities, one filed by Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, and the other by Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake.

But despite the unusual number of gun-related bills filed, a good number of members in the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature don’t think those proposals have much of a chance of becoming law.

“I think that since the Sandy Hook shootings there has been an inclination on everyone’s part to overreact,” said Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, the dean of the Texas Panhandle/South Plains delegation.

“On the one hand you’ve got people that want to take guns away from everybody and on the other you’ve got people who want to put guns on everybody’s hands,” Smithee said. “So, if there is anything the Legislature can do we would like to do it but we’ve got to be careful not to overreact.”

Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, was even more critical of most of the gun bills filed.

“We’ve got to have more bravery on the part of our elected officials,” said Burnam, who believes many of his Republicans colleagues are under the thumb of the National Rifle Association.

“The weapon trappers in this country want to completely militarize our culture, whether it is in our schools, whether is in our borders and we have to push back,” Burnam said. “I’ve been pushing back and I hope Republicans and other moderate people begin to push back, too.”

Even bills such as the one Deuell, the East Texas senator, filed, are a question mark.

“Ten (hours) is too much for the people who got bored,” said Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, who also has a concealed carry license.

“But is it too much for the information necessary to understand the legal ramifications of concealed carry and to qualify?” Seliger asked. “No, I’ve done initial, I’ve done renewal, my wife has done initial. So, is 10 too many hours? No.”

Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, is not convinced that most gun bills filed this session are doomed or questionable.

“People are concerned that law-abiding citizens are going to lose their right to keep their arms, that there is a push to scale back” gun ownership in the United States, said Hughes who recently addressed a pro-gun rally in his East Texas district.

“That’s why you see Texas moving in the other direction,” he said. “We want to make sure that their rights are protected. We don’t want criminals to have guns, we don’t want people who are mentally unstable to have guns, but law-abiding citizens have the right to keep their arms and I think there is more of a focus on it now.”

For Hughes, who has served in the Legislature for 10 years, the key for any of the gun-friendly bills becoming law is getting out of committee – where most measures die – and make it to the House and Senate floors for a debate and a vote.

“That’s the big question,” he said. “There is a lot of support but this is part of the process.

“If they get to the floor, I think they’re going to pass big,” Hughes predicted. “We’ll see whether they get there.”